“Either the AFL or AFLPA, who pride themselves on being leaders on these issues, they’ve got to take a stance and understand they may lose a few along the way but for the betterment of the game they have to go hard and test four times a year, and really start penalising.

“The illicit drugs policy is an absolute failure at the moment.”

Maxwell also said that he is aware of players getting out of drug tests.

“It was brought in for medical reasons, so that if players tested positive to illicit drugs then there could be a process to educate them and make sure it wasn’t something that continued.

“I started to here rumblings myself, and did some digging talking to players from different clubs because up until recently I’ve been pretty naïve on how big the drug culture is in society.

“Different players have told me they’ve been able to get out of tests… players have been getting out of it because they know the system.

“A lot of senior players out there are frustrated and worried because they also now know that if a teammate gets tested and gets a second strike they’ll get four weeks – so that could cost them success.”